F emale.
P lace and
M anners.
down the fhaft of each is a yellowifh ftreak : the chin, throat,
belly, thighs, and vent, dirty yellowifh white : fore part of the
neck and breaft pale rufous, marked with a few blackifh fpots,
and the feathers ftreaked down the middle as the back, but paler :
the feathers of the Tides are rufous, marked with fmall blackifh
' fpots, and marked down the fhafc as the others: the quills are
grey brown, crofted with rufous bands outwardly": the tail has
twelve feathers, wich black and pale rufous bars: legs pale
brown.
The female differs from the male in having no black fpots on
the fore part of the neck, breaft, and fide feathers, and the
rufous colour lefs vivid : fome of them have a long fpot of
brown beneath the throat.
The Quail feems to fpread entirely throughout the old world,
but does not inhabit the new; is feen from the Cape of Good Hope
quite to Iceland *, and throughout Ruffia, Tartary, and China ^;
and in fhort is mentioned by fo many travellers, and in fo many
places, that we almoft calf it an inhabitant of all. It is obferved
to fhift quarters according to the feafon, coming northward in
fpring, and departing fouth in autumn, and this in vaft flocks,
like other migrating birds. Twice, in a year come in fuch vaft
quantities into Capri, that the btfloop of the ißand draws the
chief part of his revenue from thern; hence is called the Quail
Bijhop %. But this does not ftand alone; almoft all the iflands
in the Archipelago, on the oppofite coafts, are at times covered
* Hor relow. •J- Said to be found in Falkland Ißes \ alfo in New Zealand,— Set Forßer s
Ob/, p. 199.
I Hiß. des oif. with
with thefe birds, and fome of them obtain a name from this cir-
cumftance *. On the weft coaft of the kingdom of Naples,
within the fpace of four or five miles, an - hundred thoufand
have been taken in a day, which have been fold for eight livres
per hundred, to dealers who carry them for fale to Rome. Great
quantities alfo fometimes alight in fpring on the coafts of Provence,
efpecially on the diocefe of the bifiop of Frejus, which is
near the fea, and appear, at their firft landing, fo.much fatigued
that they are often taken by the hand f. Thefe circumftances
then leave not a doubt o f their being the fame kind of birds
which the divine hand of Providence thought right to direft in
fuch quantities as to cover the camp o f the murmuring Ifraelilest
In the autumn, great quantities are frequently imported into
England from France, for the table, which we have frequently
feen on their pafiage to London by the fiage-coaches, about an
hundred in a large fquare box, divided’into five or fix partitions
one above another, juft high enough to admit of the Quails
Handing upright; thefe boxes have wires on the fore part,
and each partition furnifhed with a little trough for food; and
I have been told they may be conveyed thus to great diftances
without difficulty §.
With us they may be faid not to be plenty at any time.
* This is the cafe in an ifland in the harbour of St. y ago, which is called
Quail Iße.—For/.. Voy. p. 39.
f Hiß. des oif.
J Exod, xvi. 13.
§ How they agree fo well I do not know. The ancients found them fuch
quarrel fome birds,, that when the children fell out they applied a proverb, «'
** quarr elfome as Quails in a caged*